Sometimes, Not Working Works

My goal this weekend was to make a whole lot of headway on an editing assignment. And while I did make a small amount of headway, I also made a decision today that put me further ahead than the editing would have.

You see, it's been a gorgeous weekend. Sunny and warm. I wandered around the yard probably more than I should have. Tonight I'm watching Amazing Race. And this afternoon I made one of my best decisions in quite a while when I decided at the last minute to put off my work. What did I put it off to do? To go to "The Dining Room."

No. I didn't go sit at the table and eat. I went to see the play by that name (written by A. R. Gurney), which was being directed by a friend of mine from college (who, as usual, will remain nameless because I didn't ask her if I could put her name in here).

Here's the thing - I haven't seen her since college, about 21 years ago. We've been in touch, lately - she lives in the metropolitan area - but we haven't actually seen each other. So this could have gone either way, you know. We could have stared at each other with nothing to say. Or we could have just fallen back into conversation.

Luckily, it was the latter.

We had a great hug in the lobby before the show, followed by a conversation. She came and sat with me during intermission and we talked. And, after the show, we talked some more. Sure. There was a little smalltalk, but there was also plenty of just plain talk. It was great.

Definitely a better way to spend the afternoon than editing a thoroughly mediocre manuscript.

Color Me Confused

I really thought I had posted something, yesterday, but I just looked and found that my last post was the one about my rather amazing drive home the other day. Hmm...

So... What have we missed in the past couple of days?

The contractors haven't been back to work on the changing of our screen porch into a three season room. I guess, maybe, they're waiting for the windows to come in, after all.

I saw another bald eagle, today. This time it was while I was running errands. I was distracted enough that I missed my turn-off and had to drive an extra half-mile, then make a U-turn. Today's eagle sighting wasn't as dramatic as the last one, though. This one was simply circling above the traffic. That's why I missed the turn-off - I was looking up and watching. (At least I wasn't texting...)

And that pretty much gets us back up to speed on this gloriously sunny Saturday. I guess that wasn't so confusing after all!

Things You Don't Expect To Say While Driving

There are plenty of things I say fairly regularly while driving. I say things like "Oh, COME ON!" and "What the...?!?" and, especially - as many of the people who ride with me can attest - "Duuude!" (which is remarkably multi-use depending on inflection and intonation).

At the same time, there are a number of things I don't really expect to say while driving. For instance, I don't see myself using the phrase "Please don't drive, yet. I would prefer to sit here stopped now that the light is green."

I also don't expect that I'll be saying "Don't worry about your phone usage. Really. I'd rather you stay on that call than look at the road."

Today I got to say something I absolutely never expected to hear myself say. Especially not on my commute home from work. Let me give you some context:

I was about halfway home, driving around the west side of Lake Calhoun, just about to curve around the south side. Calhoun is a lake in the middle of Minneapolis. It's surrounded by houses and streets and people. But the lake is big, and there are often wildfowl around. The curve of the road goes between the lake (to the left) and a small pond off to the right of the road.

The past couple of weeks I've seen the ice come off the lake. I've seen ducks in the pond. I've even seen some herons (maybe cranes? I have no idea) go back and forth. Today, however, I looked to my right and saw something different in the air above the pond.

When I looked out the righthand side of the windshield, I saw something that looked like a snowball attached to a brown-ish kite. It was moving toward me fairly quickly, though, and as I kept watching it got bigger. It got bigger FAST.

Within a split second, the wings flapped and I saw a white flared tail behind it all. And the snowball became the head of a bird. A big, white-headed bird. At which point I whipped my head around to take another look and yelled to no one in particular (since I was alone in my car with the windows rolled up) something I really never thought I'd yell in my car in the city: "That's a frickin' Bald Eagle!"

I slowed down (there was nowhere to stop) and watched the eagle cruise across the walking paths and along the water's edge toward the east. I'm amazed that more people didn't stop to watch it go by. As I turned away from the lake, the eagle disappeared from sight.

A frickin' Bald Eagle! Duuude!

Ins and Outs and Doorbells

Do you ever have one of those days where things mostly go right, but - somehow - things just seem a little off? Today was one of those days.

As I was getting to work this morning, I walked into the building with one of my co-workers. He's not someone I talk to alot (we work on completely different projects), but we've collaborated on a couple of things. More importantly, we've commiserated about a few situations (and people) from time to time. He's one of the few people in the office who is older than me, and I think the fact that we are each old enough to be considered to be in a different generation than the rest of the staff... well... that was a bonding thing. Anyway, as we were walking in today, he commented that today was his last day. Not his "giving notice" day, but his actual last day.

He said his good-byes around lunchtime and then just kind of left. So, of course, after he was gone I went into his old cubicle and took his chair. It's basically the same as mine, but my old one kept trying to push me forward, while his sits up normally. Heck it even lets me lean back and slouch a little. It made for a nice afternoon.

See... That's the kind of day it was.

After work, before meeting a couple of friends for dinner, I ran to Restoration Hardware to buy a new doorbell for the screen porch (which is being modified into a three-season room). You see, the renovation guys were able to come right on time, and there was a chance that they would need the doorbell tomorrow or later this week (instead of the originally predicted next week). Christopher and I had found a style we liked a week or so ago, but didn't know when we'd need it.

So, no problem. I ran to the store to buy it. I found a staff guy who was available immediately and pointed out the one I wanted to take home with me. Who knew that Restoration doesn't keep them in stock? You have to order them so that they'll be delivered to your home in 3-5 business days. Of course, when I got home after dinner, I found that they had already installed a little basic doorbell. Okay... yeah... the wiring is moved, the doorbell is much more visible than it used to be, and we're good to go. Except that we still want a different doorbell.

Like I said. One of those kinds of days.

I think I might need to go to bed before I have anything else to add.

Seasonal Sustenance

Ah. Spring. The flowers are coming up (we have tulips budding in the yard!), the grass is greening. The allergies are flaring.

And there are things in the grocery store that you can only find seasonally. Things like asparagus. And other spring fruits and vegetables. You know, like Peeps. And Cadbury eggs. And Russell Stover marshmallow eggs. And Reesester bunnies. And all of the other amazing foods that are only available for about a month each year.

Christmas candy is great and all, but - aside from the preponderance of peppermint - most of the candy available around Christmas is available the rest of the year. But not Easter candy.

Easter candy is only around at Easter. Once the Cadbury mini eggs and Robin Eggs disappear from the stores, they won't be back for at least 11 months. So you have to savor what shows up in the Easter basket. After a few days of chocolate-coated and sugar-filled meals, the binge-ing will have to end in a fairly "cold turkey" fashion.

Which, considering that shorts season is coming in the near future, might not be a bad thing.

It's An Easter Miracle! (Maybe Two!?)

(Okay. I admit that there are a few people in the world who may not find this funny. I, however, am not in that group. I suspect that many of you also are not in that group. Or at least I hope so.)

This morning, when my father went down to have coffee at the bar/cafe, he found out that a local woman, who is really very nice, had passed away. For the sake of argument, we're going to call her Estelle. Estelle Branch. Estelle was a very nice woman, and, although she was right as rain just a few days ago when my parents saw her, she apparently died in the night. Possibly in Sioux Falls. So my father, having come home from learning this news, phoned his good friend - Estelle's nephew - to tell him the sad news. It made for a melancholy Easter Saturday lunch.

However, about an hour later, the phone rang. It seems that the men's gossip newsline had gotten it wrong. It was not, in fact, Estelle Branch who had died last night. It was Estelle Schwerner. And Estelle Schwerner had been ill for a while, culminating in a stroke just a few days ago. No one knew why she was might have been in Sioux Falls. Although this is definitely sad news for the Schwerner family, it's much better news for the Branches. So Dad picked up the phone, again, to call his friend and let him know that his aunt is, in fact, alive. Again, sad for the Schwerner's, but good for the Branches.

Except that, as we learned just about an hour ago, it wasn't Estelle Schwerner who died. Estelle Schwerner, just like Estelle Branch, is still alive and well. Although, possibly not quite as well as Estelle Branch, considering the stroke and all. You see, it wasn't Estelle Schwerner who died. It was actually Estelle Schwerner. I mean. Umm. Another Estelle Schwerner. An Estelle Schwerner who lives in Sioux Falls, whom no one around here actually knows, and is simply someone that somebody in town is sort of related to.

Need a score card? Here you go:

Estelle Branch. Dead? Only for about 3 hours in gossip-time. Currently alive and quite possibly kicking.

Estelle Schwerner. Dead? Only for about 90 minutes in gossip-time. (Although possibly not kicking so well after the stroke.)

Estelle Schwerner. Dead? Sadly, yes. And we feel really sorry for her family - whoever they may be.

Estelle the half-tabby/half-pure-white cat who lives down the street? (Seriously. I kid you not. We just found out that was the cat's name this afternoon in the midst of all of this death and un-death.) Still has all 9 lives to work with, as far as we know.

Overall score: 1 alive (nine lives to go); 1 dead (again, sadly); 2 alive after amazing resurrections.

And neither of them even had to wait three days.

Now that's an Easter miracle.

Climate Change 101

I know that there's a whole lot of debate over Global Warming and Global Climate Change and all of the other buzzwords out there.

It's not like we're having consistently warmer temps year 'round. Minnesota definitely had plenty of cold weather this winter. Enough frigid temps that the snow pack we built up starting in October never really settled at all. (Usually, there's a kind of shrinking of the snow as we have a January warm up and then we get a bunch more snow.)

This year, though, the snow was around so consistently and for so long, that when it started to disappear a few weeks ago it left behind the largest amount of "snow mold" that we've seen in years. Honestly, I'd never heard of snow mold until this year when I heard about it on the news. I simply looked out one day and thought "Wow. I didn't realize there was so much frost last night" and then realized that is was only on the grass. It took a few days for the mold to go away - in some shaded areas you can still see traces of it. (Gee. Do you suppose this has anything to do with everyone having cold and allergy symptoms the past few weeks?)

Of course, March is typically the snowiest month of the year, which might explain why we don't usually see much of the mold. On the other hand, this year, for the first time since weather records have been kept in Minneapolis, we had no snow. Not a dusting. Not a flurry. Not a flake. (Not even really any rain, if you want to get down to it.)

On the other hand, we've had days in the 60s, when our average highs are supposed to be in the 40s. At the end of the month, when highs should be in the 50s, we were hearing predictions of 70s and even 80s.

On my drives home, I've been watching the ice come off the lakes. And I've seen the clothes coming off of the people running and riding around them.

Don't get me wrong. It's been a wonderful early spring, so far. Tulips and irises are up higher than usual. We've gotten to drive with Christopher's sunroof open. I've gotten to wear my "in between" coat about twice as long as I have the other years I've been out here.

It's been great.

But... Yeah... Anyone who says there isn't some kind of climate change going on really needs to look outside.